NRA on White House meeting: 'They were checking a box'

1/10/13 7:12 PM EST

National Rifle Association President David Keene said Thursday night that a meeting gun rights advocates had with Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials earlier in the day uncovered almost no common ground on gun-related issues.

In an interview on CNN, Keene described the session as perfunctory and said Biden did not come to the meeting with an open mind.

"They were checking a box. They were able to say we've met with the NRA. We've met with the people that are strong Second Amendment supporters," Keene said. "We stated our position. They stated their position."

While Keene portrayed President Barack Obama's team as inflexible, the NRA official made clear his organization wasn't budging either. He said the group would not support limits on high-capacity magazines or reinstating the federal assault weapons ban.

"We are not going to agree on these gun questions," Keene said, dismissing the administration's plans as "feel-good proposals."

Keene said his organization considers it unworkable to expand the federal requirement for background checks so that it covers all weapons sales. He didn't rule out requiring checks on sales at gun shows, but said "in the real world" there's no effective way to make sure individuals selling to other individuals in fact do such a check.

"Those are private transactions," the NRA chief said during an eight-minute interview with CNN's Wold Blitzer and Kate Bolduan. "The problem is: how do you enforce a law that would require me to check you out?...It could be done at a gun show perhaps...In private transactions, it's very difficult."

Keene mentioned only one area of potential agreement: making the databases for background checks more comprehensive. The recent mass shootings were all carried out by "people who are severely mentally ill" and should not have been allowed to buy weapons, he said.

"It should be tightened up in the sense that the people who should not have firearms should be included in the database," Keene said.

The NRA chief also sounded unconcerned about Biden's suggestion Wednesday that in addition to making legislative proposals, Obama will take "executive action" on the gun issue

"There are some things that can be done by executive orders and some things you can't do by executive orders," said Keene. In the past, most such executive actions have met with lawsuits backed by the NRA, including one that was in court this week.